During my senior year of high school, I decided to create a new Instagram account dedicated solely to my photography. My previous account was inundated with pictures that did not reflect of who I was at the time. I created merricksadventures, a new Instagram account with one sole purpose in mind:
Capture the interesting things and people I encountered in my life.
Initially, the account worked. In college, I found myself pursuing photography more often, challenging myself to do and see more to capture more subjects. In college, I brought my camera everywhere. I watched basketball games, attended concerts, and hiked Georgia's hiking paths alone. I found myself yearning for the next place or event that I could photograph so that I could showcase my photos with my friends who were following me. I relished every like and comment I received and beamed with pride at any compliment I received in person regarding my photos. I loved sharing my photos and I loved the attention my art was receiving from those I respected the most.
College Adventures
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Instagram has its flaws, however. My new job had me traveling frequently for work, and after long workdays I found myself no longer craving adventures, but rather the next post in an infinite doom loop of reels. By the time I was 23, Instagram had captured 9 years of my viewing habits and knew which content would keep me on the app for as long as possible. In an ironic twist, I could not turn away from content I found disturbing or grotesque; as my screen time increased, the algorithm sent more offensive and disturbing content for me to digest. The content force-fed to me was changing who I wanted to be. I found myself angry at the world, adopting views that were an anathema to the person I aimed to be, and I became increasingly more misanthropic.
After careful review of my life, I decided to deactivate my account until I felt comfortable going back onto the platform. I was off of the app for five months and honestly did not miss scrolling Instagram during the interstitial moments of my life. It was not until someone asked me to reach out to someone whose contact information I only had on Instagram that I reactivated the account. I had planned on simply messaging that one person and deactivating the account upon sending a quick message. Instagram had different plans though.
I tried deactivating my account and a pop-up appeared. The pop-up stated that if a user reactivates their account, they are unable to deactivate the reactivated account for 7 days. I remember reading that message and the immediate fear I felt when realizing what that meant. I felt my addiction coming back each minute I spent on the explore page. I looked at my chats and began tangibly shaking while strolling through memes and short videos. I did not sleep that night and I was only able to pry myself off of Instagram by locking my phone in a box for a day. I realized Instagram had thrown down the gauntlet implying I could not stay off the app after reactivating my account. I made a promise, a challenging one, that I would delete my Instagram permanently after those 7 days were over. I did not care if I was missing out on trends, if I was going to miss memes sent by my best friends, or if I was going to miss major life events that my friends had experienced. This app was addictive and I needed it out of my life.
I deleted the app and noticed an immediate improvement in my life. Sure, I missed the funny photos and messages my friends would send me, but I realized I did not need to be on my phone all hours of the day when I had nothing planned. The only downside was that my avenue for sharing my photography was gone. I had thousands of photos of places and things that I wanted people to see, but no way to share them with my favorite people. It was a frustrating side effect, but one I accepted due to my struggles with social media.
Fast-forward two years and one of my friends is discussing what he can code using Claude Code. An idea popped into my head, and I asked him if it was possible to vibe code a photography website using AI coding tools. "Duh," he responded.
Armed with generative AI and ample experience creating in digital experience consulting, I aimed to create a website with the same intent as my initial Instagram account. The website will serve as a place for me to interact with the world on my own terms. No algorithm will push my content. No advertisements will surround my photos. The people visiting my website will do so of their own accord, not because they simply scrolled onto it.
I don't know what the future of this website may hold and what I do plan to build, but I do promise to do the following:
- Put ideas and thoughts into the world that are mine and mine alone.
- Strive to be the best person I can be.
- Never stop chasing adventure, no matter how big or small the journey is.